Research News - Rolfing® & Fascia
News about Rolfing and fascia research as well as information about new research activities of the European Rolfing Association ERA.
Please feel welcome to contact us if you know about new results or activities not yet present here.
Interdisciplinary Fascia Research Course, March 2010
The registration for the Fascia Research Course at Ulm University, March 21st-26th 2010, is open. A one-week intensive course on anatomy, biomechanics, research methods and clinical assessment of human connective tissues.
An outstanding team of instructors has been confirmed. And the maximum of 48 participants is almost reached already! The interest in this growing field of fascia research is high.
The European Rolfing Association ERA has been instrumental in setting up the Fascia Research Course.
Information & Registration:
Fascia Research Course 2010
Vladimir Janda-Award for Dr. Robert Schleip and Dr. Werner Klingler /University Ulm "European Fascia Research Project"
Dr. Robert Schleip and Dr. Werner Klingler of the University of Ulm have been awarded with the Vladimir-Janda-Award for muscolo-skeletal medicine in Leipzig, Germany.
“What is the fascia?… This network of connective tissue can be found in the whole body. And this fact has until now not been properly valued. Although the fascia was known before, nobody believed it would make much sense to have a closer look at it. You may consider this quite peculiar, but medical history is not void of such strange facts.” (Ida Rolf)
First International Fascia Congress on 12 / 13 October 2007 in Munich:
The Connective Tissue In the Focus of Research
• Representatives from various disciplines keen to get going
• Enthusiastic comments from Rolfers: “a truly inspiring event”
On Friday 12 October as well as Saturday 13 October, the first International Fascia Congress took place in the head offices of the European Rolfing Association. The main item on the agenda of the event was the video transmission of the most pioneering talks from the “First International Fascia Research Congress” at the Congress Center of the Harvard Medical School in Boston on 4 / 5 October 2007. Apart from that, representatives from various disciplines held specialized speeches.
Dr. biol. hum. Dipl.-Psych. Robert Schleip from the Ulm University, who had already delivered a speech in Boston, seized the opportunity of his opening speech in order to bring across the sense of positive change among researchers triggered by the Boston congress. He took the participants to a fascinating video-recorded tour of the fascia structures found in the human body. As in Boston, he reported the findings of his team of researchers at Ulm University, according to which the fascia have stress regulation mechanisms of their own, which are assured by contractible cells.
Dr. med. Dominik Irnich, Head of the Interdisciplinary Pain Polyclinic and Senior Physician of the Clinic for Anaesthesiology at the University of Munich Hospital made the opening remarks and pointed out to the necessity to combine orthodox research methods and complementary contents. He put a particular stress on the current state of the art as regards the efficacy of acupuncture with backaches, pain in the knee and headaches. In this context, he also mentioned the latest basic research on acupuncture, which says that most of the acupuncture points of the human body are located on specific bifurcations of the deep fascia (Fascia profunda).
Moreover, he informed the audience of the latest findings on the extensive innervations of the fascia. Obviously, the sensory nerve endings in the fascia play a major role for the proprioceptive sensation (the perception of one’s own body) as well as in backaches.
On the second day of the congress, Dr. Johannes Meyer, Vice President of the Deutschen Gesellschaft für Osteopathische Medizin e.V. (the German Osteopath Society) and President of the European Register for Osteopathic Physicians took a look at “Fascia from an Osteopathic Point of View.” He explained why the fascia have been neglected by doctors and physicians in the last 3 decades and why they are currently experiencing such a rapid growth in attention in medical research. For his explanations, he used the example of the biomechanical concept of the tensegrity body architecture, which considers bones as floating braces in an otherwise fascia-dominated tension network. He underlined the similarities of osteopathy and the Rolfing method in this respect, which are not only due to the fact that the founders of both methods put forward the significance of the fascia for body posture and general tension regulation quite early.
Article in Science Magazine 23. November 2007 (PDF 228KB)
Fascia Research Congress Boston:
